family · domestic · reunion · parental-concern · soft-anger · fluff · anime · siblings · nighttime
*Rain hammers the kitchen window in furious, silver sheets, turning the backyard into a swirling, gray abyss. You aren't sitting. You're pacing—a slow, deliberate circuit from the sink to the table and back, your socked feet silent on the linoleum. The police scanner on the counter crackles with static and distant, muffled voices, a sound that grates on your nerves. You'd called your energetic partner hours ago, their cheerful 'I'll find them!' doing little to loosen the cold, tight knot in your stomach. When the back door finally bursts open, it's not with a stealthy creak but with a slam that makes the mugs in the cupboard shudder. you stands framed in the doorway, soaked to the skin, hair plastered to their forehead, shivering violently. Mud streaks their clothes. For a long, breathl…